When the Paralympics begin in Paris on Aug. 28, there will be no shortage of feel-good storylines. But two whistleblowers tell Pablo Torre Finds Out a very different story: about how widespread cheating has destroyed the integrity of the Games themselves. Paralympians are allegedly manipulating the system by exaggerating their impairments, lying to classifiers, and tanking tests — a fraud known as “classification doping.” But one athlete has decided, at long last, to fight this problem in court....
Aug 13, 2024•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is Tim Walz’s coaching career the key to beating Donald Trump’s Republican Party? What does the NFL still get wrong about paying star quarterbacks? Is walking a mile in a fast food worker’s shoes better rehabilitation than jail time? Plus: Ozark Mina, non-tearful Dan, Judge Beast, Bill Barnwell, David Foster Wallace, and throwing burrito bowls at people’s faces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Aug 09, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast An existential paranoia has been lurking beneath the surface at the Olympic Village, where the most pressing story doesn’t get talked about on TV. We field an urgent video call from Team USA diving coach Drew Johansen about the "unintended consequences" of the system quietly responsible for more than 1,000 Olympians who competed in Paris. And how the most recent update in the NCAA’s legal fight could sink your favorite Olympic sports back home on campus... and at the 2028 Games, in Los Angeles. ...
Aug 08, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Adolf Hitler gave the legendary runner a mysterious gift: four potted oak tree saplings — one for each of the four gold medals that Owens won, while surrounded by Nazis, in one of the greatest performances in the history of sports. Almost a century later, correspondent David Fleming examines what Owens decided to do with his so-called Hitler Oaks... and why that decision remains an enduring act of American defiance. Plus: tree people, myth-busting, redlining and witc...
Aug 06, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to The Sporting Class! Meadowlark Media CEO John Skipper and Nothing Personal's David Samson are back with another episode with host of Pablo Torre Finds Out ... Pablo Torre! The NBA media rights deal saga is not over just yet. Warner Bros. Discovery is not going away quietly as they have now sued the NBA. What exactly does David Zaslav want from this? NBA games? Money? Both? What’s the deal with Charles Barkley? Is he going to stay with TNT? He said he was going to retire after the 2025...
Aug 02, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast What got left on the cutting-room floor of The Last Dance? That shrugging security guard, Scottie Pippen's cattle prod, almost Obama — and so much more. Plus: the iPad trick, pulling a Stat Boy, what it feels like to be parodied/cancelled on SNL… and a pickup-line surprise featuring butterflies, a bulldog puppy and a newborn. Further reading: Watching the National Championship at a Georgia bar is what heartbreak looks like (Charlotte Wilder) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices...
Aug 01, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast J.D. Scholten is a state representative from Iowa who went viral for the ultimate call to the bullpen: He left a music festival, a beer-and-a-half deep, to suddenly sign a minor-league contract and pitch into the seventh inning — at 44 years old. But that's just the beginning, because this J.D. might be the opposite of J.D. Vance. In fact, he's unlike most elected officials from either party: He fights punch-down politics. He is selling a real form of populism. Hell, he's running for re-election...
Jul 30, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is Kamala Harris’s “memeability” the key to her winning the presidential election in November? Or are Zoomers just having a laugh? How does one develop their “rizz”? Or are we sociopaths for even asking? And would you fight your parents if they named you Arthur (sorry to any Arthurs out there)? Also: Mina goes goth, Pablo has a secret nickname, and Dan wears pants. Further Reading: Could Kamala Harris’s “Brat summer” win her the presidency? (Vox) Is ‘Rizz’ the Secret to Getting Ahead at Work? (W...
Jul 26, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Michelle Wie was hyped as nothing short of the next Tiger Woods. As a kid, she was a global sensation: competing against not just adult women but the men, at PGA Tour events — signing seven-figure sponsorship deals in the process. But now, two decades later, Michelle tells Pablo what child stardom was really like, behind the scenes. And she appraises a career unlike any other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jul 25, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast From a college dorm room to an 18-car garage, there is no "psychological mindf**k" quite like becoming a millionaire overnight. But a supermajority of athletes continue to squander their compressed window of lottery-like earnings. On the 15th anniversary of his seminal story for Sports Illustrated, "How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke," Pablo gets an honest re-appraisal from wealth-management advisor Todd Burach — and brave testimony from Justin Pugh and Antoine Walker — on where stars really are ju...
Jul 23, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to The Sporting Class! Meadowlark Media CEO John Skipper and Nothing Personal’s David Samson are back with another episode with host of Pablo Torre Finds Out ... Pablo Torre! It’s time for more NBA TV rights talk! It looks like NBC, ESPN, and Amazon have won the battle, even though Warner Bros. Discovery is trying to fight. What does the big money mean? Let’s take a look at the valuations of media rights deals and what comes next for sports leagues. Why is Knicks owner James Dolan so mad...
Jul 19, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is joining a club the key to healing our fractured nation? Would a robot be better than Katie Nolan at bartending? Would you cover your face in fish sperm for dermatological reasons? PLUS: the worst drink to order from a bartender, Dr. Dupixent, frankincense, myrrh, and late-breaking country music news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jul 18, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast What do Mike Tyson, Lawrence Taylor, Darryl Strawberry and Herschel Walker have in common? They were Donald Trump's New York superstar allies in the 1980s — and they remain his time-warped avatars for Black American voters in 2024. Semafor political reporter Kadia Goba transports us from selling handbags at Trump Tower to receiving calls from these aging MAGA all-stars on a nostalgic, notorious and downright criminal journey toward interviewing Trump himself at Mar-a-Lago. Further reading: 'They...
Jul 16, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Are the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders actually what they say they are? (And are they underpaid?) Also, how does a retired NFL player coach his own children without turning into Earl Woods? Plus: a fire alarm, a milking, a moonlighting meteorologist, a hard-to-get kung-fu master and the Hug-a-Bros. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jul 12, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Before his best friend got him mixed up in the biggest story in baseball, Shohei Ohtani was a kind of child star caught in a state of arrested development. Enter the Japanese interpreter: part live-in nanny, part spouse in a trans-Pacific shotgun marriage. Correspondent Tim Rohan takes us inside an intimate profession that's closing ranks, post-scandal. Turns out, actual translating isn't the half of it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jul 11, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast We tumble down the rabbithole of the global match-fixing scandal that’s quietly tearing apart the U.S. Olympic fencing team, ahead of their trip to Paris this month. And we investigate how it all connects to a spiraling refereeing crisis that takes us from Harvard and Princeton to the very top of the International Olympic Committee — and Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Where one of the world’s 100 richest people, Alisher Usmanov, has allegedly exported a culture of bribery and corruption that’s scared ...
Jul 09, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Pablo has unearthed a long-rumored, previously unpublished, for-your-eyes-only video from the summer of 2010, featuring a committee of A-list New Yorkers recruiting free agent LeBron James to the Garden. It may feature one of the biggest revelations in TV history, but let's just say — between a couple former politicians and another convicted rapist — that this tape has aged very, very poorly. Knicks superfans Jason Concepcion (@netw3rk) and Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) gaze into the ark of the cove...
Jul 05, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rex Chapman, former Great White Hope and author of the new memoir "It's Hard for Me to Live with Me," traces the fading of an endangered sports species, from his personal history as a basketball prodigy in the American South to the rise of the international game. This episode originally aired March 22, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jul 04, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Do athletes, coaches, and GMs give a s*** about what sports gasbags like Mina, Dan, and Pablo say about them? Early returns say: yes. Does Google suck now? Mina’s Reddit usage indicates: also yes. And most importantly, could you rawdog a 7-hour flight? Or, do we just like saying the word “rawdog”? Also: enshittification, Mina gaslights her husband, and the grief-eating truffle pig returns. Is Google S.E.O. Gaslighting the Internet? (Kyle Chayka) Why Men Are ‘Rawdogging’ Flights (Kate Lindsay) Le...
Jul 02, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast The greatest trick the Buffalo Sabres ever pulled was convincing the world that Taro Tsujimoto really existed. Correspondent Michael J. Mooney takes us from a mysterious call in western New York to a hockey rink in the Himalayas — and explains why this completely made-up human has never felt more alive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jun 28, 2024•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is it better to remember or forget? Why do luxury car companies compete at Le Mans, a 24-hour race in a French town? And why do you watch streams of video games like Elden Ring (even if you’ll never play them)? Also: Michelin, Mongolia, core memories, downloadable chodes, and, as always, horse-punching. Further reading: I Have a Terrible Memory. Am I Better Off That Way? (Katy Schneider) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jun 27, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Forty years ago this week, the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael Jordan — giving rise to the holiest of basketball grails. Twenty-three autographed Jordan rookie cards would be scattered across the globe, in the form of Wonka-esque golden tickets. But at last check, nine of these cards had vanished. Correspondent Bradley Campbell gets to the bottom of a seven-figure mystery — spanning four decades, three continents, black-market conspiracies and an armored-car robber — that presaged the modern era o...
Jun 25, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast At a time when so many are struggling with the regulation of expression, from Elon Musk's X to college campuses to the workplace, why did mixed-martial arts, of all things, rebrand itself as America’s leading bastion of free speech? Ariel Helwani, the sport's preeminent journalist and host of The MMA Hour, traces an evolving policy — from getting censored himself to a homophobic rant going viral — and explains how UFC boss Dana White has made a fortune in the name of “freedom.” This episode orig...
Jun 21, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast He could be drawing up plays for superstars, after interviewing with the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, and more. But the ESPN commentator and "Old Man & the Three" podcaster has been leading a group of middle-schoolers in Brooklyn, with the same passion and perfectionism that he brought to Duke and then 15 seasons in the pros. If you thought you hated JJ Redick, just wait 'til you get inside the greatest mind in the history of fourth-grade basketball. This episode originally aired January 11,...
Jun 20, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast You may remember Smush Parker from his very public, lopsided beef with the late Kobe Bryant, but there is so much more to the arc of Smush's life story — from being a toddler raised inside "The Cage," in New York City, to bringing up the ball right before "The Malice at the Palace" began. And now, it turns out, Smush Parker is committed to another shocking quest: become the fourth former NBA player, ever, to become an NBA referee. This episode originally aired December 19, 2023. Learn more about...
Jun 18, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast On one level, standup comedian Gary Vider’s childhood was a dream come true. He and his father, Manny, had virtually unlimited access to some of the biggest games and athletes and celebrities in the world. The only problem is that the whole thing was built on a complete lie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jun 14, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast What’s the best way to pay tribute to a Hall of Famer whose spirit transcends both time and space? By calling up his tipi-crafting spiritual advisor — and, additionally, Oregon’s own Ian Karmel. Who himself poses an important question: why is Hollywood so bad at creating overweight characters? Also: the Bill of Bill, Katie’s Bible study, and Shlomo Puddingtits. Buy Ian's new book, T-Shirt Swim Club, here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jun 13, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast The superstar once condemned as the most notorious anti-Semite in American sports is playing nice, even though he now works for the most influential pro-Israel donor in American politics, who happens to have Donald Trump in her pocket. Which is exactly why the NBA doesn't want you to know more about Miriam Adelson. New York magazine's Elizabeth Weil introduces the sports world to the king-making, history-altering extremist queen of courtside. Further reading: Miriam Adelson's Unfinished Business...
Jun 11, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why can't America stop arguing about Caitlin Clark? (And who's actually right?) How much harder is raising a son these days? When should kids get cellphones? (AND DO YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN US?) Also: pinky shelves, and if we could have avoided all of this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jun 07, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Oakland A's are leaving Oakland, but not before a rebel force of die-hards can remind billionaire nepo-baby John Fisher — the Kendall Roy of Major League Baseball — what it really means to be a fan. Slate's Joel Anderson embeds with the boycott movement and stops at nothing to unravel the conspiracy known as WristbandGate… even when it takes him to the depths of a notoriously sewage-infested stadium. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jun 06, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
